Gears Of War 4 (Beta) – Early Access

The Gears 4 Beta was released yesterday for those players who had gotten the Gears of war Ultimate Edition when it was first released. About 2 hours into it I started to get the hang of the gameplay since it was largely based off of Gears 3. The Beta featured 3 maps and 3 different game modes. The modes were pretty standard with Team Death Match, (a new mode) Dodgeball, and Coop team death match.

Gears of War 4 – “Tomorrow” Trailer

I only played Team Death Match but the game was still fun and actually reminded me of the old days on Gears 3. I noticed that the menus were super improved and the multiplayer had teams of five players instead of 4. These were both cool additions, and I appreciated the new look since all of the past games had similar menus. Lots of the multiplayer is still buggy at this point though and I experienced a few along the way. I had an issue where my gun wouldn’t fire even though I pressed the trigger repeatedly, in certain angles when aiming over the shoulder my character just disappeared, and a few times my shots would simply not appear on any surfaces.

My Gears 4 Beta gameplay

At this point it seems the groundwork for the multiplayer portion of the game is in place and it is clear that it was built off of Gears 3. This makes sense though since it is the next official sequel in the series. The game is still very fun and entertaining although there is always the frustrating part of dying frequently while going through the learning curve of a new multiplayer game. I also enjoyed the new weapon called the “Dropshot” and the new super detailed gore effects that splash around as you demolish your opponents.

Obviously there is still more work that needs to go into the game to make the multiplayer portion polished, but I was just glad that I was able to play the game early. As big fan of the series I am hoping that the final game ends up being a well balanced and epic experience. Also for anyone who doesn’t know, if you did not receive a code for the early access part of the beta, don’t worry. The early access ends in a week, and the Open Beta will be available for everyone on April 24th on Xbox One.